Defending the Most Indefensible Show on TV: The Newsroom

To watch The Newsroom is to hate The Newsroom. (And to tweet about how much you hate The Newsroom.) The show subjects its audiences to an hour-long reprimand from creator Aaron Sorkin via his self-righteous main character Will McAvoy. See: the opening scene of the very first episode.

You, nonetheless, are without a doubt a member of the worst period generation period ever period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the FUCK you’re talking about!...Yosemite?

Or, really, any episode ever.

I’m a leader in an industry that miscalled election results, hyped up terror scares, ginned up controversy, and failed to report on tectonic shifts in our country. From the collapse of the financial system to the truths about how strong we are to the dangers we actually face. I’m a leader in an industry that misdirected your attention with the dexterity of Harry Houdini while sending hundreds of thousands of our bravest young men and women off to war without due diligence. The reason we failed isn’t a mystery. We took a dive for the ratings.

The reasons for the hate are valid: first, the female characters. Despite their obvious intellect and positions of power, the women of The Newsroom are still flighty and emotionally fragile and boy-crazed. No matter how many PhDs in economics Olivia Munn’s Sloan Sabbith may have, she’s still blunder-prone and obsessed with closets because she’s a girl. The guys are no better, often portrayed as egomaniacal chauvinists. (Like, the time Sam Waterston’s Charlie Skinner called Sloan "Money Skirt." MONEY. SKIRT.) And then there’s the fact that it reimagines real-life news headlines as stories that only one news program uncovered and reported truthfully to the highest ethical standards, ratings be damned. (No matter all those other broadcast and print journalists who actually did all of the work.) Also, Sorkin constantly reminds us of everything he hates, like the Internet and Real Housewives.

But still. The show is kind of great.

It isn’t glorifying cable news, like some critics argue, rather it illustrates what could be possible if we didn’t spend copious amounts of on-air time on Royal Baby Watch. Yes, it’s condescension at its best. Those same stories deemed important by The News Night with Will McAvoy control room are being reported and broadcast, after all. But always at length on the major go-to news programs? Consider that the next time you’re complaining CNN isn’t giving enough focus to Egypt’s revolution redux.

Watching The Newsroom, it’s tough to not be sucked into those news stories written into the storylines. Sorkin taps into the emotional experience of a major event—like, say, the assassination of Osama Bin Laden—by forcing his audience to relive it. We watch it unfold all over again in TV-real-time, sometimes with original footage. Cheap ploy to get us emotionally invested in an episode? Maybe, but it works. (The new season sticks with the News Night-gets-the-story-right with the added bonus of watching them actually get it wrong. From the opening scene of the season premiere, the audience watches through flashbacks as the News Night team uncovers and reports on a Watergate-level government scandal...and then retracts it and faces serious legal repercussions. The details trickle in at a frustratingly slow pace that keeps you hooked to find out what hell happened.)

Also, the acting. Jane Fonda nails her role as the Cruella of cable news networks. Jeff Daniels’ zero-to-60 tantrums earned him an Emmy nod. And Sam Waterston is just fun to watch. The rest of the cast—especially Thomas Sadoski, John Gallagher, Jr., and Marcia Gay Harden—are pretty great too, taking on Sorkin’s signature quippy, fast-paced dialogue style.

Convinced? It doesn’t matter. Yes, it can be awful. But it’s also the reason why you’re still hate-watching it. And hate-watching is kind of fun! It gives us something to collectively shake our fists at, which in turn reassures us that other people think like us, so maybe we’re okay after all. Also it breeds drinking games.

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